Triple-T For Tuesday, May 12th

TripleT

It’s time for another mindless brain dump….

  1. Today we picked dad up at 8 a.m. and brought him to Pocatello for his annual visit to the Veterans Clinic. He has to physically go to the clinic once a year in order to continue getting free prescriptions from the VA. I think he really enjoyed getting out and the drive to Pocatello and back. After the clinic we stopped at Costco for a few things and I wheeled him through the store in his wheelchair. We got him back to the nursing home in Soda Springs about 1:30 this afternoon. The weekly bus ride was leaving at 2 p.m. and he got on the bus to take their drive out north and east of Soda Springs. The area where they were going was where some of his favorite fishing spots were located.
  2. The VA Clinic visit was somewhat of a puzzling appointment. When I made the appointment they told me that he should come fasting. On arrival they did the vital signs and then he meet with a nurse practitioner who looked at the list of medications and was ready to issue prescriptions and send us on our way. Mother reminded him that dad had come fasting. So he (somewhat reluctantly) arranged for blood to be taken for workup. Two nurses stuck dad three times without getting any blood so they called in a phlebotomist to take over. One more stick and they got all the needed blood.
  3. A few weeks ago we got a mailing from Idaho Power offering us some money off our electric bill this summer if they could install a switch where the power company can slow down the air conditioning unit at peak demand times. When we got home this afternoon there was note in our door that the switch had been installed. Now I’m wondering how the guy got into the yard to install the switch on the a/c unit.
  4. Nina has started working out schedules for our trip out east in June. It looks like we’ll go all the way to Connecticut on this trip as well. I’m looking forward to being on the road once again.
  5. While the undenting looks nice, the Avalon car door still has too much wind noise. I’ll take it in once again this week to see if they can make the passenger side as quiet as the driver’s side of the car.
  6. My favorite brother Perry was born on Mothers Day way back in 1953. I remember that event to some extent as I was eight years old then. One standout memory is that he was so very tiny when mother brought him home from the hospital. My sister Eileen had a doll bigger than he was. That seemed very strange to me then.
  7. For this Mother’s Day Nina and I drove over to Soda Springs after we were finished with Church meetings. Our oldest son James and his family had come out to Utah from Missouri as there was a wedding in LeeAnn‘s family and Jim and LeeAnn were doing the photography for the wedding. They also drove up to Soda Springs as a surprise visit. We then had a family dinner at mother’s house. It was a very nice day.
  8. During this time of the year my favorite color is green. After so many months of winter with brown or grey hillsides and mud, spring has arrived and everything is green. It’s beautiful! I put fertilizer down on the yard last Friday and Monday turned the sprinkler system on. While there were no geysers, one segment isn’t working. The sprinkler folks haven’t called me back.
  9. I’m looking forward to living someday somewhere where the wind doesn’t blow so hard. Today the jet stream was literally over the town of Pocatello with wind gusts in excess of 50mph. That’s too much wind!
  10. I’ve got piles of stuff all over my area of the office. The chair mat on the floor is disintegrating. There is an apple tree on the back deck that has to get planted. Meanwhile, I’m about half-way through book 6 in the Wheel of Time series. I lasted one day between book 5 and book six. Now I think I can finish the series by the end of June and still have time to read it again by November 3rd when the next book will be released.

And that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Farmers Market and Star Trek Enterprise

General
A Nice Day at the Farmers Market
A Nice Day at the Farmers Market

This morning was one of those severe clear days … not a cloud in the sky to be found anywhere. It was definitely a marked change from last week when we bailed out of the market mid-morning. I did make up a couple of posters that helped as people walked by. The attendance at the market today was just fair, but I expect that’ll pick up as the month progresses.

I did make my first sale of a raised garden bed, however. The lady stopped by to look at them last week, and came back this week with the intention of buying one. I was very happy to sell her a garden bed. It’s already made, I just need to stain it once more and then deliver it.

Quite a few other people stopped to look and ask questions. The price tag is high enough that people probably have to look and then think about it for a while. Perhaps next week we’ll reap this week’s plantings? Poor metaphor, I know.

The Line for Star Trek Enterprise
The Line for Star Trek Enterprise

The new Star Trek Enterprise movie’s official opening date was on Friday. I ordered tickets online at Fandango for the 4:30 p.m. showing on Friday afternoon figuring it would be after the rabid crowds but before the school kids and working parents would go. That turned out to be a very good decision. The theater was about half full and we had good seats for a fabulous movie. It was over way too soon. Definitely lots of room for sequels! I’ll definitely go see it again. When we came out of the theater, there was quite a line to get in for the next showing. I rather like being able to go to the movie in the afternoon.

When we were living in Colorado Springs and the Lord of the Rings movies were coming out, I’d take my entire staff (except for one or two people who had to stay behind to keep the lights on … and they got free passes for later) to go see them. I hear about that every once in a while from someone who used to work for me. It’s something that costs nothing and builds great relationships.

It’s now late Saturday evening and we’re close to wrapping up for the night. Tomorrow after meetings we’ll go over to Soda Springs to spend the afternoon with mother and dad and Nina will take dinner over in celebration of Mothers Day. That should be a fun afternoon.

Triple-T for Cinco de Mayo

TripleT

Here we go for Tuesday, May 5, 2009!

  1. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Cinco de Mayo event, ever. Today I finally looked the celebration up in Wikipedia and learned that Cinco de Mayo refers to an unlikely victory of the Mexican army over the French. It’s an interesting article about an event I didn’t have any clue about until today.
  2. I’ve been re-reading the Wheel of Time series. So far 11 books in the series have been published, with the author Robert Jordan dying after book 11 was published and before he could complete the series. He was working on what he thought might be the last book when he died and another author Brandon Sanderson was engaged to finish. However, he and the publisher have decided to finish the series up with three more books. Book 12, A Memory of Light will come out on November 3rd this year. So, I decided to reread the initial 11 books and be ready by November for the next book in the series. This is at least the fourth time that I’ve read them. The series is so interesting, though, that I can’t put the books down. I just finished reading Lord of Chaos, book 6 yesterday. At this rate I’ll be done by June! So, for the time being, I’ve stopped reading so I can get something else done.
  3. While the Avalon is indeed undented, the door now makes wind noise and at highway speeds it whistles. I’ve been assigned the task of taking it back into the shop to get the noise taken care of. Hopefully that’ll happen Thursday morning.
  4. A very clever and talented young lady I follow on Twitter (@katieblair) recounted the last paragraph of her grandfather’s obituary. It was delightful!

    5. In lieu of flowers, the family asks you to take a friend to lunch, call a favorite teacher, or reconnect with a long time acquaintance.

  5. I’ve got several things to get done for the next Farmers Market on Saturday. The weather is not forecast to be favorable, however. I’m hoping it at least will be a bit warmer than last week.
  6. The most important item for the market is to get Much Bigger Signs. While we were sitting at the market last Saturday trying to stay dry and somewhat warm, Nina suggested that we should make up some signs and get them … and she couldn’t think of the word. She kind of described what she was thinking, but my brain was completely blank as well. Several hours later as we were driving somewhere else, I suddenly blurted out “laminate!” We both laughed very hard and long. It’s not that we forget, she reminded me, we just remember later.
  7. The charter event for our new Portneuf Rotary Club was last Tuesday afternoon. It was a very fun event and an attendee took a number of pictures. I was given the opportunity to upload those pictures to the Rotary District Website (link to the pictures on the bottom of the left column). That turned out to be a very painful process. Their website is set up for uploading the occasional picture. Every picture has to be uploaded individually and every one of the fields in the process has to be precisely correct. And, the website doesn’t remember anything from one picture to the next, even the date of the event. After uploading about 66 pictures, I was glad to be done and won’t avail myself of that opportunity again. Maybe I can have our new Rotary club let me make their webpage?
  8. I was over in Montpelier on Monday meeting with the Mayor and the City Clerk. They were having huge computer problems trying to print out the past-due water / sewer notices. For some reason the print on the page was so small it couldn’t be read. There were a couple of technicians working on the problem, one in the office and one on the phone. The problem was finally solved … it was an issue with Microsoft Word. A patch automatically installed by Microsoft caused the problem. I don’t like auto-installed software updates.
  9. My motorcycle is ready for the summer. I needed a new front tire and new front and rear brake pads. Now I just need some decent weather so I can do some riding! We’ve been getting plenty of rain which also is not a bad thing (except for riding the motorcycle).
  10. Nina came in a couple of minutes ago to get an envelope. She saw I was still writing this missive and expressed her pleasure that I wasn’t ready to go to bed yet, as she needed another ten minutes or so. I think she still got done faster than I did!

And that’s another ten things in the bag.

A Rainy, Cold, Short Beginning For the Farmers Market

General
At the Farmers Market
At the Farmers Market

The first time at anything is always a great learning experience. This morning’s Farmers Market fell right in line.

The plan is to sell the raised garden beds at the market (actually, to take orders for them). The forecast was for rain and about the time the market opened at 9 am so did the skies. By 10:30 most of the vendors had packed it in and so did we. By that time we were both pretty dang cold. I’m sure in a few weeks we won’t remember how cold this morning was and will be wishing for cooler weather.

There weren’t many market visitors and even fewer shoppers. We gave away a few brochures and got lots of “that’s a great idea” but no orders. I’m hoping the weather caused that! We’ll be back next week with much larger signs, pictures, and hopefully much better weather.

A New Experience With Qwest

General

I’ve had a number of pretty crumby tech support experiences with Qwest. Whenever there’s an issue with my DSL service, I actually cringe when it turns out that I’m going to have to call tech support.

Today was a different experience … a significantly improved experience. A month or two ago I got a mailing from Qwest that encouraged me to call QwestASSIST if I had any issue with my service, wanted to change my service, or look at new services. This morning my DSL service stopped working. I had a red light on the Qwest DSL modem indicating that the Internet connection was not working. I rebooted the DSL modem to the same result. So, reluctantly, I called the QwestASSIST number.

I went right into the queue to wait for the next customer service representative. No confusing “press this button” or  “select that option” at all. A continuous barrage of advertisements followed, repeated often, while I waited in the queue. My total wait was about five minutes before a very calm customer service rep answered.

I told her what the problem was, gave her the information she needed to access my account. She said that I’d need to talk with broadband technical support and that she’d connect me. I went back on hold (with the same barrage of advertisements) for a minute or so. Then the miracle occurred!

She came back on the line and said that the queue for technical support was quite long. I had the option of waiting on the phone with her, or

she’d call me back as soon as technical support answered!

I took that second option. About twenty minutes later, my cell phone rang, it was the customer support lady, who hooked me up immediately with David from Technical Support. He told me about an issue that they were having, explained what I should do should the DSL modem not just start working when the broadband service was restored.

Not long afterward service was restored and the DSL modem picked up without a hitch. I was back in business.

Then, wonder of wonders, the customer service rep call back a couple of hours later to verify that all was well.

But that’s not all!

I mentioned the good experience on Twitter … and learned that Qwest has a Twitter account and is watching for mentions of Qwest on Twitter. Hurrah for them! This is indeed another improvement.

Thanks, Qwest!

Triple-T For Tuesday, April 28th

TripleT

It’s Tuesday! Here we go:

  1. The City of Pocatello has started a curbside recycling program. It costs $5 per month, no sorting, everything recyclable goes into the same container and they pick it up every other week. Our new pretty blue recycle can was delivered yesterday and the first pickup is a week from today. It’ll be full by then as we’ve been saving up!
  2. We’re clearly still having spring weather as we’re bouncing between warm and cold, sun and snow. I drove the car out to Arbon for a speaking assignment Sunday and drove back through two big snow squalls. Today the foothills got a blanket of snow.
  3. It looks like we’ve had a good water winter. The farmers in Arbon and happy with the amount of moisture in the soil. Now it needs to not have a hard freeze and for prices to remain fairly stable.
  4. The Avalon is now finally completely undented. We returned the car to the shop yesterday morning for the final piece of work and picked it up that afternoon. It looks once again like new.
  5. The drive to Heather’s house in North Salt Lake goes through the wetlands northwest of Brigham City and alongside Willard Bay just north of Ogden. We usually kill several million bugs, it seems, every time we drive that route from spring to fall. Last week thousands of small black bugs committed suicide by car as we drove past Willard Bay around 10:30 pm. They don’t want to unstick, either.
  6. A good piece of today was spent relearning to do some things with a database that I was sure I would remember when I first figured it out several months ago. What isn’t practiced is forgotten! I even have a convenient way of writing those kinds of things down in my laptop. Suffice it to say that it’s now documented … and because of that, I’ll probably never have to refer to the documentation again. It seems that the very act of writing it down cements it in the brain!
  7. The media always seems to have to have something sensational to latch onto. This week it’s swine flu. Certainly no fun for those in Mexico who have died from the flu, but it certainly isn’t a pandemic.
  8. The city websites are definitely keeping me busy. I want to get these two pretty much done before taking on additional work. There’s most likely a market in small municipalities for web pages, but I’ve got to get it a lot more automated and need the ability to outsource some of the work. I need to figure out how best to package the work that would be outsourced (not necessarily overseas, though).
  9. We went to the Symphony on Friday night and I wrote about it last Saturday. When I wanted to link the Symphony website, I found that the website had disappeared and what was displaying was not at all helpful … primarily links to dating sites. I called the President of the Symphony and told her about the problem. It appeared that the domain registration had expired. Calling her worked as the website is now fully functional, but rather out of date.
  10. Last, but far from least, the Rotary Club that I joined last year finally got enough members to be chartered as an official Rotary Club. Tonight was the big event and I’ve now got a Rotary pin to wear on my lapel that says “Charter Member”. Most of the members of this club are quite a bit younger than I am as this is an afternoon club that meets at 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday evening. Two of other three Rotary Clubs in Pocatello meet at noon and one meets at 7:30 a.m. I think the afternoon club will be quite popular. Rotary is definitely a worthwhile organization and a whole lot of fun!

And that’s the end for this Tuesday.

Speaking About Unity … My Talk Notes

Church

Warning …. LDS Church Doctrine Follows!

I was assigned this month to talk on Unity at the Arbon Branch. I went out there today and had an enjoyable Church meeting block. What follows are my crib notes for my talk:

A couple of weeks after High School graduation in 1963 I was at Lackland AFB in Texas sweating in boot camp learning hard lessons about being obedient. The Air Force had a name for this obedience, called “following orders absolutely and completely.” Everything in basic training revolved around the squadron becoming “one.” We got up at the exact same time; marched together in formation everywhere (and we spent a LOT of time learning to march precisely together), studied together, ate together, and retired at the same time collapsing into our bunks. The purpose for all of this was to learn to trust our fellow airmen to also follow orders (that is, be obedient) and not let each other down.

I was in Air Force Basic Training for a variety of reasons and decisions, one of which had to do with the fact that the United States was getting seriously involved in a war in Southeast Asia. I had the earliest draft date of all the fellows in my graduating class and I had no desire to carry a gun and shoot at people while being shot at. I figured that enlisted guys in the Air Force would be safely away from where bullets were flying.

However, after finishing my training as a Chinese Linguist, I found myself in a sandbag bunker on my first night in Vietnam holding an M-16, a couple of clips of ammunition, and a box of additional ammo nearby with orders to let no one past unless they were friendlies with more than plenty bullets flying around. It was raining hard, which meant that there was no air support. The Viet Cong coming at us with intentions of doing serious bodily harm would only be stopped by those of us on the ground. It was a harrowing night and when it ended, the training had worked. The enemy was repulsed and I even had some ammunition left.

That night left a big impression on this young nineteen-year-old kid. One of lessons that night hammered home to me was the need to be “one” in whatever great cause we’re engaged in.

Scriptures on Unity

There are four critical commandments, four declarations from the Lord so powerful that almost everything else we think upon and live pales in comparison. They are from the teachings of the Master, where he stated:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

“This is the first and great commandment.

“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matt. 22:37-39; italics added).

“The third?” you ask. “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

And the fourth, “If ye are not one ye are not mine” (D&C 38:27).  (“The Blessing of Being Unified”, Elder Hugh W. Pinnock, Ensign, May 1987)

The scriptures have a lot to say about unity:

Moses 7:18: And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

D&C 38:27: I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.

John 17:20-21: Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

Ephesians 4:11-14: And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Mosiah 18:21: And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with bone eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.

D&C 105:1-5: Verily I say unto you who have assembled yourselves together that you may learn my will concerning the redemption of mine afflicted people- Behold, I say unto you, were it not for the transgressions of my people, speaking concerning the church and not individuals, they might have been redeemed even now. But behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which I required at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance, as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them; And are not united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom; And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself.

Achieving Unity

How do we achieve this Unity so that we might abide the Law of the Celestial Kingdom?

1.    Obedience.

We will become of one heart and one mind as we individually place the Savior at the center of our lives and follow those He has commissioned to lead us (“Come to Zion”, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Ensign, November 2008).

One of those principles [of unity] is revelation. Revelation is the only way we can know how to follow the will of the Lord together. It requires light from above. The Holy Ghost will testify to our hearts, and the hearts of those gathered around with us, what He would have us do. And it is by keeping His commandments that we can have our hearts knit together as one (“Our Hearts Knit as One”, President Henry B. Eyring, November 2008).

In Mosiah we read:

“And they were called the church of God, or the church of Christ, from that time forward. And it came to pass that whosoever was baptized by the power and authority of God was added to his church.

“Yea, even he commanded them that they should preach nothing save it were repentance and faith on the Lord, who had redeemed his people.

“And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.
“And thus he commanded them to preach. And thus they became the children of God.” (Mosiah 18:7, 19-22)

2.    Being Inclusive.

That leads to another principle of unity. It is to speak well of each other…. Realizing that you see others in an imperfect light will make you likely to be a little more generous in what you say…. I can promise you a feeling of peace and joy when you speak generously of others in the Light of Christ…. We must follow that same principle as the Lord gathers more and more people who are not like us. What will become more obvious to us is that the Atonement brings the same changes in all of us. We become disciples who are meek, loving, easy to be entreated, and at the same time fearless and faithful in all things. We still live in different countries, but we come into the Church through a process that changes us (“Our Hearts Knit as one”, President Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, November 2008).

Within this Church there is a constant need for unity, for if we are not one, we are not his. (See D&C 38:27.) We are truly dependent on each other, “and the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” (1 Cor. 12:21.) Nor can the North Americans say to the Asians, nor the Europeans to the islanders of the sea, “I have no need of thee.” No, in this church we have need of every member, and we pray, as did Paul when he wrote to the church in Corinth, “that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Cor. 12:25-26.) (“That We May Be One”, Elder Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, May 1976)

One way I have seen it done is to search for anything on which we agree…. The great peacemaker, the restorer of unity, is the one who finds a way to help people see the truth they share. That truth they share is always greater and more important to them than their differences. You can help yourself and others to see that common ground if you ask for help from God and then act.

He will answer your prayer to help restore peace, as He has mine.

That same principle applies as we build unity with people who are from vastly different backgrounds. The children of God have more in common than they have differences. And even the differences can be seen as an opportunity. God will help us see a difference in someone else not as a source of irritation but as a contribution. The Lord can help you see and value what another person brings which you lack us (“Our Hearts Knit as one”, President Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, November 2008).

3.    Service.

We control the disposition of our means and resources, but we account to God for this stewardship over earthly things. It is gratifying to witness your generosity as you contribute to fast offerings and humanitarian projects. Over the years, the suffering of millions has been alleviated, and countless others have been enabled to help themselves through the generosity of the Saints. Nevertheless, as we pursue the cause of Zion, each of us should prayerfully consider whether we are doing what we should and all that we should in the Lord’s eyes with respect to the poor and the needy…. In much of the world, we are entering upon unsettled economic times. Let us look after one another the very best we can (“Come to Zion”, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Ensign, November 2008).

Are we one with our neighbors? Is the street where you live a little more peaceful because you dwell there? (“The Blessings of Being Unified”, Elder Hugh W. Pinnock, Ensign, May 1987)

He cannot grant [unity] to us as individuals. The joy of unity He wants so much to give us is not solitary. We must seek it and qualify for it with others. It is not surprising then that God urges us to gather so that He can bless us. He wants us to gather into families. He has established classes, wards, and branches and commanded us to meet together often. In those gatherings, which God has designed for us, lies our great opportunity. We can pray and work for the unity that will bring us joy and multiply our power to serve (“Our Hearts Knit as One”, President Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, November 2008).

In Conclusion

How do we glorify Jesus? How do we say thank you for the Atonement? How do we state gratitude for the ordinances and the covenants? How do we express appreciation for his teachings? Of course, we do it by loving God, by loving our neighbor, by living the commandments, and also by being one. We adapt to the Master’s teachings. We place him and others with us into one: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism,” as Paul taught (Eph. 4:5). We accept those called over us as our leaders without creating a fuss. Our leaders know of our loyalty because we do what they call us to do.

May we be one in this great work, brothers and sisters…. May our children observe this solidarity and a genuine desire to be one that enhances our lives with peace and with power ? (“The Blessings of Being Unified”, Elder Hugh W. Pinnock, Ensign, May 1987).

[T]he key to a unified church is a unified soul-one that is at peace with itself and not given to inner conflicts and tensions. So much in our world is calculated to destroy that personal peace through sins and temptations of a thousand kinds. We pray that the lives of the Saints will be lived in harmony with the ideal set before us by Jesus of Nazareth.

We pray that Satan’s efforts will be thwarted, that personal lives can be peaceful and calm, that families can be close and concerned with every member, that wards and stakes, branches and districts can form the great body of Christ, meeting every need, soothing every hurt, healing every wound until the whole world, as Nephi pleaded, will “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. …

“My beloved brethren,” continued Nephi, “this is the way; and there is none other way.” (2 Ne. 31:20-21.) (“That We May Be One”, Elder Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, May 1976)

Zion is Zion because of the character, attributes, and faithfulness of her citizens. Remember, “the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18). If we would establish Zion in our homes, branches, wards, and stakes, we must rise to this standard. It will be necessary (1) to become unified in one heart and one mind; (2) to become, individually and collectively, a holy people; and (3) to care for the poor and needy with such effectiveness that we eliminate poverty among us. We cannot wait until Zion comes for these things to happen-Zion will come only as they happen (“Come to Zion”, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Ensign, November 2008).

Wrapping Up the Week With Good Music

General

The week is indeed almost in the books. In a few minutes I’ll head to bed to be up early in the morning for a day of Church service. I’ve a speaking assignment at the Arbon Branch tomorrow. I really enjoy going out there and always look forward to the opportunity. There are some outstanding people out in that valley. I’m speaking on Unity and I’ll probably post the notes from the talk tomorrow evening sometime.

Most months on the fourth Friday Phil Windley organizes a monthly CTO Breakfast. I enjoy getting together with that group and try to arrange my schedule to be able to go down to Salt Lake for that. Usually the fourth Thursday Laura Moncur organizes a Geek/Blogger dinner somewhere in the valley. If it works out, I drive down on Thursday afternoon, go to the dinner Thursday evening, stay the night at our daughter Heather‘s house in North Salt Lake, and then go to the CTO Breakfast on Friday morning. This month I decided to make a small change, skip the dinner, and Nina and I would drive down to North Salt Lake after she was done at the prison. I’d go to the breakfast the next morning, we’d visit with the family, and drive back home in time for the last Idaho State Civic Symphony performance of the season.

It worked out very well. I picked Nina up at the prison at 9 pm as they finished up and we got to Heather’s house about 11:30 pm. She was still up as a young woman in her ward (where Heather is the Relief Society President) got bit by a rattlesnake and had to be life-flighted to the University Hospitals in Salt Lake for treatment. Fortunately, all is going well for the young woman who now definitely has a rattlesnake story to tell!

The breakfast on Friday morning is usually held at the Novell Cafeteria in Provo. However, on this day the cafeteria was not available so the breakfast was hosted by the Utah Education Network (UEN) at their facility in the Eccles Broadcast Center on the University of Utah campus. There was good attendance and the UEN presentation was very interesting. Utah is doing some very innovating things with marrying technology and education.

Afterwards Heather, Nina, and I met granddaughter Stephanie for lunch at Dodo’s Restaurant at the Gateway Mall. I had a very nice French Dip (the bacon and swiss cheese really helped make the sandwich). It was a good experience and great conversation.

Idaho State Civic Symphony and the Camarata Singers Onstage
Idaho State Civic Symphony and the Camarata Singers Onstage

The Idaho State Civic Symphony (their website has disappeared!!) together with the Camarata Singers put on a fabulous program on Friday night. The program started with Respighi‘s Pines of Rome which literally pulled the entire audience (another full house) to their feet at the end for a long, heartfelt standing ovation. After a 20 minute intermission the orchestra was joined by the Camarata Singers in a performance of Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. The piece begins and ends with “O Fortuna“, an almost undescribable, heart pounding piece of music. It almost brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear it (and I have three different recordings of it on my iPhone). Last night’s performance was, well in a word, stunning. Once again the entire audience sprang to their feet for a long, long standing ovation. The local university radio station recorded the performance. I need to find out if they’ll replay it sometime on their station. I’d dearly love to hear it again.

And that wraps up this week. Good night!